Tablet for rapid writing



(No Model.)

U. SMITH. TABLET FOR RAPID WRITING.

,0. 418,991. Patented Jan.7,1890.

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UNITED STATES PATENT GEEICE,

URIAH SMITH, OF BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN.

TABLET FOR RAPID WRITING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 418,991, dated January '7, 1890.

Application filed April 13, 1889. Serial No. 307,081. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern/:

Be it known that I, RIAH SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Battle Creek, in the county of Calhoun and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rapid-Iriting Tablets; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable ot-hers skilled in t-he art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention consists in a sheet or tablet of paper having groups of letters printed or otherwise placed thereon for use in rapid writing.

In sten ography, phonography, and other systems of short-hand writing great length of time and persistent application and practice are required to learn each system, and as much time is necessary to learn to read ones writing asis required to learn to write it. Another disadvantage of the short-hand systems is that as each individual has necessarily his own peculiar methods and abbreviations no one but the Writer himself can read what has been written, and even the writer himself must write out his notes at once while the context is fresh in his mind, in order that he may know that he is correct. For these and other reasons it has become a desideratum to devise a system by which long hand may be rapidly written and easily read by any one. In doing this I employ prepared sheets of paper-that is, sheets printed with a series of letters containing the whole alphabet. In the drawing I show the manner in which the sheets are printed.

As it appears, the letters are printed in blocks all alike, each block containing every letter of the alphabet, some ot' the more commonly-used letters, as the vowels, and some of the consonants, R, S, and 'I, appearing more than once in each block. It is obvious that any arrangement of the letters may be used; but I prefer the arrangement shown.

Then it is desired to write any word, the writer places his pencil on the first letter of the word farthest to the left in the block in which he begins, then runs the pencil along to the second letter, and then to the third, and so on until the word has been spelled out. The lines maybe run up, down, to the right, and to the left, as may be necessary to spell 5 5 out the word; but for convenience in reading the word should be made to end on a letter farther to the right than the first letter, 0r just below it. The writer is not conned to one block in which to finish a word, but may continue 6o it through more than one. Two or more words also maybe Written with asingle stroke of the pen in the manner of connecting Words in the systems of short-hand. For example, the sentence IVe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,

is Written as shown in the drawing, the phrases we hold these, truths to be, and all men are being written without lifting' the pen, and the other Words being made by 7o a single line.

I am aware that it has been proposed to arrange letters in squares, parallelograms, circles, die., and connect them by a line or lines running from one inclosure to another according to a prearranged or prescribed plan for cryptographical Writings, as particularly disclosed in English Patent No. 2,797 of 180i, and such arrangement and practice I do not claim; but

That I do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. A sheet or tablet for rapid writing, having placed thereon a series of horizontal alphabet-lines, each line composed of a series of S 5 groups or blocks of letters and each block embracing a com plete alphabet, substantially as described.

2. A sheet or tablet for rapid writing, having placed thereon a series of horizontal al- 9o phabet-lines, each line composed of a series of groups or blocks of letters and each block embracing an alphabet, and a duplication of the vowels and of the consonants R, S, and 'l, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

URIAI-I SMITH.

lVitnesses:

lV. O. PALMER, C. L. PALMER. 

